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Studies and Analyses

Economic upturn fueled by investment and consumer spending – Economic outlook for Austria from 2016 to 2019 (December 2016)
(PDF, 566 kB)Fenz, Schneider.
The Austrian economy is currently experiencing an upturn driven by domestic demand. Real GDP growth will accelerate to 1.4% in 2016 after expanding by less than 1% for four years in a row. This expansion is being fueled by private consumption, which has benefited from the income tax reform that entered into force in January 2016, as well as by investment in equipment. The Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB) projects annual GDP growth of 1.5% for Austria in the period from 2017 to 2019. Notwithstanding robust employment growth, the unemployment rate (Eurostat definition) will climb from 5.7% in 2015 to 6.3% in both 2017 and 2018 and is expected to drop slightly to 6.2% only in 2019. While continuing to remain low at 0.9% in 2016, inflation will accelerate to 1.8% by 2019.enMar 31, 2017 12:00:00 AM

Anatomy of Austria’s trade in services
(PDF, 628 kB)Walter.
This study analyzes Austrian exports of business services as an indicator of non-price competitiveness in manufacturing before and after world trade collapsed in 2008/09. A unique company dataset was used for this purpose and broken down into individual product/market combinations. The trend analysis differentiates between export growth along the intensive margin (intensifying existing export relations) and along the extensive margin (establishing new export relations). The extensive margin, which signifies export diversification, is more important for the development of manufacturers’ service exports than that of the service sector. This applies in particular to manufacturers that are more technology intensive and it implies that Austrian manufacturers develop know-how to establish new foreign trade relations. After the global trade meltdown, however, manufacturers’ service exports seemed to have primarily helped maintain long-term trade relations, with the extensive margin losing significance. This indicates a worsening of the framework conditions (heightened protectionism) and weak development of foreign trade in goods having a negative impact on service exports.enCompetitiveness, diversification, industry studies, international trade, services, specializationF14, L25, L60, L80Mar 31, 2017 12:00:00 AM